The 1950s were a decade of tremendous energy in American writing. American writers gained international prominence thanks to the Nobel Prizes awarded to William Faulkner (1897–1962) in 1950 and Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) in 1952. Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea even made it onto the bestseller list for a time. Norman Mailer (1923–) was one of several young writers who gained attention in the decade, thanks to the success of his war novel The Naked and the Dead. Other emerging literary talents included Flannery O'Connor (1925–1964), John Cheever (1912–1982), and J. D. Salinger (1919–). Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye was the most influential novel of the decade. A new group of writers known as the Beats, or beatniks, defied cultural norms and produced a variety of works that were sharply critical of mainstream society. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) and the poem "Howl" by...